‘There were some nice passages of play produced by us too’

Over the past decade and more Claire Coffey has encountered a wide range of experiences playing camogie for Meath.

There was for instance that day in the Autumn of 2017. An historic, unforgettable day for the game in the Royal County when the All-Ireland Intermediate title was landed under coach John Davis, after a replay. Meath defeated Cork in Limerick with Coffey the captain.

Against that precious memory are the bad days, the heavy beatings. The days when fate and fortune appeared to be against the Royals.

Saturday couldn't be filed away in either category. It wasn't one of the team's best days - nor was it one of the worst. Sure, they shipped a bit of a hammering. Any day you lose by 16 points could, at best be described as chastening, but amid the torrent of Dublin attacks that rained down on the Meath defence like a cloudburst there was the good stuff. The encouraging stuff.

There was the fight obvious in the Meath display; the refusal to allow themselves to be submerged by the flashflood in blue - and right up there leading the resistance was Coffey. She, along with, Sophia Payne, Rachel O'Neill, Tracy King, Ellen Burke and Leah Devine sought to plug gaps in the Meath battlements as the storm raged.

Goalkeeper Tara Murphy also played her part with a couple of top drawer saves. There were other little signs of that spirited resistance. At one stage Aoife Minogue chased back and prevented what looked a certain Dublin goal. The Dunderry player skilfully hooked Dublin's Louise O'Shea just as she was about to pull the trigger.

Luck too played a part in keeping Dublin at arm's length. In the second-half Aishling O'Neill cut through the Meath cover and was clear. You would have put the mortgage on the net dancing. Instead the ball rebounded off the post.

No-one in green hid when it would have been easier to do so, everyone fought with spirit and courage. Yet the scoreboard didn't make for encouraging reading for the home team.

Coffey spoke afterwards of the "serious tempo" that was set by Dublin and the incredible intensity they whipped up and how difficult that was to grapple with. She also focused on some decent hurling her team played. It wasn't all one-way traffic, she was suggesting.

"It was backs up against the wall from the beginning as far as we were concerned but there were some nice passages of play produced by us too," the Na Fianna player noted.

"It's just that the type of pressure they exert will wear a team down eventually and that's what happened to us in the last 10 minutes or so."

She talked of how in a couple of weeks time Meath will kick-start their All-Ireland Intermediate Camogie campaign with a game against Laois and while Saturday's defeat was sore the breakneck tempo of the game will certainly prepare the team for the challenge that awaits in the cut and thrust of the All-Ireland championship.

"Prep wise today's game showed us aspects of our own game we have to work on," she added. "Things like the opposition puck outs, our puck outs, how do we handle those aspects of our game, the way we line up, deal with various issues."

Coffey, who works in the lab at Mullingar Hospital, says the challenge is there for her team to win the Intermediate once again and revive memories of that great day back in 2017.

Meath have lost at the semi-final stage for the last three years and it's clear that's something of an irritant, a record she would "love" to put right. She believes lessons learned from games such as the one that unfolded at St Loman's Park on Saturday can provide invaluable experience. Show the kind of standards Meath should aspire towards.

She reflected too on how the years pass and fortunes change.

"When I started playing for Meath in 2010 we were Junior Premier, playing teams like Roscommon, once you go up the levels there's obviously more challenges. The speed and tempo shown by Dublin showed us what the top teams are like. They are after playing Cork and Kilkenny and teams like that in the league, amazing teams, and you could see it in their game. It's just the speed at which everything is done is amazing. The game is getting quicker. At least it seems like that to me!"

The Dublin camp included Ulster coach Michael McCullough who worked with the Meath hurlers for a time. He, no doubt, is a big factor in ensuring Dublin play at the kind of red-hot tempo they produced on Saturday.

Meath did well not to succumb to a bigger defeat than they did, partly because of their grainy, stoical, battling approach.

That, at least, is something for Brendan Skehan and his charges to take as they go into the All-Ireland Intermediate championship.

The real business is about to start and while they lost against Dublin, Meath can approach the upcoming All-Ireland campaign with considerable optimism. Saturday wasn't the best of days for Meath - but it wasn't the worst either.